FARM PROFITS. 13 



RECEIPT3. 



The farm receipts in this area amounted to $1,096 per farm for the 

 seven-year period, ranging from $796 in 1913 to $1,571 in 1917. The 

 slight decrease in 1918 over receipts for 1917 was due to the shortage 

 of crops. There is a large diversity in the sources of income on 

 these farms. The sales of live stock, together with such products as 

 butter, cream, eggs, and wool, amounted to $819 per farm, while the 

 sales of crops amounted to $180 per farm. 



Figure 4 shows graphically the average distribution of receipts 

 over the period. Live stock, it will be observed, constituted 67 

 per cent of the total receipts in 1912, and 78 per cent in 1918. 

 Hogs and cattle show the largest increases and sheep the largest 

 decline. Poultry has maintained practically the same relation to 

 the business as a whole throughout the period. Since these farmers 

 are located a considerable distance from market, many of them 

 have made a practice of using a large share of their wheat crop as 

 poultry feed. The items of greatest variation in receipts on these 

 farms over the periods were wheat and fruit. Apples made a good 

 crop three out of the seven years. 



In addition to receipts from live stock, butter, cream, eggs, wool, 

 and farm crops, many of the farmers received some money from the 

 sale of lumber, posts, wood, or shackle poles, for the rent of pasture 

 or farm buildings, for the use of part of the farm equipment, such as 

 the farm machinery or the farm team, and for part of their own labor 

 or time. These have all been considered receipts of the farm busi- 

 ness and designated "miscellaneous receipts." They totaled $81 

 per farm, and made up a little less than one-tenth of the total farm 

 receipts. 



EXPENSES. 



All costs in connection with operating the farm business, above 

 those of interest upon capital and the value of the farmer's own 

 labor, are included in the farm expenses. For the seven-year period 

 these averaged $486 per farm, representing 44 per cent, or almost 

 one-half the farm receipts. These expenses include $96 for the 

 value of labor performed by the farm family. The farm expenses 

 for the seven-year period are shown in Table I. The variation for 

 "the first five years was small, but the advance for the last two years 

 is quite marked. For one year they were 23 per cent below the seven- 

 year average and for the last year (1918) they were 55 per cent 

 above the average. The expenses have been grouped into 12 classes, 

 namely, hired labor, unpaid family labor, repairs and depreciation of 

 machinery, repairs and depreciation of house, repairs and depreciation 

 of other buildings, repairs to fences, feed purchased, seed purchased, 

 fertilizer, machine work hired, taxes and insurance, and other. The 

 proportion each class represented of the total expenses each year 

 and for the seven-year period is shown graphically in figure 5. While 



